More than 40 unarmed Iraqi army recruits were gunned down execution-style in a remote area of eastern Iraq, officials said yesterday, while a US diplomat was killed in a mortar attack on a military base in Baghdad.
The ambush that left a total of 48 dead followed twin suicide car bombings against police and the national guard on Saturday and further undermined efforts by the US-backed government to restore order ahead of elections planned for January.
Desperate to crush the insurgency, US warplanes bombed a rebel target in the restive hub of Fallujah, where local medics said six people were killed, while in Baghdad, US and Iraqi forces launched a search for weapons in the Sadr City slum.
Outgunned militarily, the insurgency has turned to guerrilla warfare, targeting the country's security forces, foreign workers and US-led troops in a relentless wave of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.
In one of the bloodiest attacks yet, the bodies of dozens of army recruits were discovered on a remote road near Baquba, 60km northeast of Baghdad on yesterday.
"We have found 48 bodies, including five civilians who were drivers," Iraqi national guard commander Ali al-Kaaki said.
"This was an execution. We found the dead lying face down by the roadside with a single bullet wound to the head," Kaaki said, adding that the recruits were wearing civilian clothing and unarmed at the time of the attack.
It was unclear when the ambush occurred or who carried it out.
The victims had been returning home in minibuses to the southern Shiite-dominated cities of Amara and Kut after a 20-day training course at a desert camp near the Iranian border, said local council member Khadija Mohammed.
In addition, six Iraqi national guards were injured in two roadside bombs near Baquba yesterday.
US warplanes pounded the Sunni Muslim stronghold of Fallujah yesterday, with medics saying that at least six people were killed and seven wounded.
A police officer said three of the dead were policemen and that the house hit in the US raid was empty.
The US military had no word on any casualties.
Meanwhile, Ed Seitz, the assistant regional security officer at the US embassy in Baghdad, died in a mortar attack at Camp Victory near Baghdad airport.
He is believed to be the first American diplomat to be killed during the current Iraq conflict, an official said.
Secretary of State Colin Powell, in Beijing on the second leg of a three-nation Asian tour, called Seitz a "brave American, dedicated to his country and to a brighter future for the people of Iraq."
A car bomb also exploded in the northern city of Mosul, without causing injury, the US military said.
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